In today’s episode of School of Sellers, I will chat about the mindset shift that changed my entire business life. No exaggerations here–my business and productivity shot through the roof once I got this bad habit out of my head and replaced it with one simple idea.
Teacher sellers: stop trying to be perfect
While I don’t speak for the entire teacher seller community, it is largely understood that we teachers are somewhat of a perfectionist crowd. We like things to look good, we never hesitate to add some extra touches, and we are constantly fine-tuning things until they are up to our standards.
This is a problem–not only in the teacher world but especially in our business. Setting high expectations is generally a good thing. But when those expectations lead to constant pressure our desire to do anything shuts down.
Here’s where the B- work comes in. We need to lower our expectations for A+ work every time. B- work allows us to get more accomplished, while A+ work holds us back and stalls our success. Here are a few thoughts and counterthoughts regarding B- work.
Our biggest limiting thought:
It has to be perfect before I publish it
WRONG. It should be good. I’d even venture to say it should be good enough. Here’s the thing: When we spend all of our creative energy on trying to produce the “perfect” thing, we often never feel like it’s done enough to publish. Unfinished work will never make an impact on your audience, but published work that is good will.
Repeat after me: Done is better than perfect.
Secondly, we often feel as though clicking that “publish” or “send” button is a death sentence. The fear of finalizing our work with the click of a button is terrifying. The thing is, you can always go back and fix things later. The most important thing is to be okay with your work being imperfect (but good enough), being done, and moving on to your next task.
Repeat after me: You can always go back and make it better later.
The truth? Most times, you probably won’t go back and fix it later because: out of sight, out of mind. That’s the beauty of this sentiment. Give yourself permission to be done and move on, and your overall mindset will be better for it.
A B- story of my own
One day, I was working on a product and needed an image of a zebra. Before I knew it, I had spent more than 10 minutes searching for the “perfect” zebra clip art image. At this point, I became disgusted with myself and said aloud, “Oh my God, Erin. Just pick the damn zebra.” This is a perfect example of the perfection mindset we have to let go of; in the grand scheme of things, the zebra just is not important.
Pick the damn zebra.
Erin M. Waters
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